Golden Globe nominations announced

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif (Reuters) -- Golden Globe voters Thursday scattered nominations for their highly touted awards among a variety of films including Frost/Nixon and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which were both given nods for best film drama.

Golden Globe Awards, given out annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, are widely watched for their impact on Hollywood’s Oscar race but Thursday’s nominations gave no clear indication of an award season leader.

Benjamin Button, a movie about a man who ages backwards, and Frost/Nixon, which recounts the interviews of disgraced U.S. President Richard Nixon by British journalist David Frost, each earned five nominations.

They were joined on the list of nominees for best film drama -- the top Golden Globe honour -- by dark and moody movies Revolutionary Road and The Reader. The fifth nominee was the uplifting Slumdog Millionaire, about a young Indian man who competes to win a fortune on a television game show.

Frost/Nixon director Ron Howard told Reuters he hoped the notoriety brought by Golden Globe nominations would help lure audiences to theaters in a busy holiday period.

“It’s a really good morning,” Howard said. “We need this kind of acknowledgment to cut through the clutter.”

Doubt, which revolves around sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, tied Benjamin Button and Frost/Nixon with five nominations but found most of its acclaim in the acting arenas after being shut out of the best film drama race.

Revolutionary Road, The Reader and Slumdog all earned four nominations each.

Golden Globe Awards also are handed out for best film musical or comedy and that group of nominees included Burn After Reading, Happy-Go-Lucky, In Bruges, Mamma Mia! and director Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which also earned four nominations mostly in acting categories.

Among actors, Benjamin Button star Brad Pitt was given a nod in the category for best actor in a film drama along with Frank Langella, who portrays Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon, and Leonardo DiCaprio for Revolutionary Road. Joining those three were Mickey Rourke as an aging sports star in The Wrestler and Sean Penn for his role as a gay activist in ”Milk.”

Best dramatic film actress nominees were Angelina Jolie in Changeling, Meryl Streep in Doubt, Kate Winslet for Revolutionary Road, Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married and Kristin Scott Thomas in the French film I’ve Loved You So Long.

Both Streep and Winslet earned two nominations with Streep also claiming a spot in the category of best actress in a movie musical or comedy with Mamma Mia! and Winslet landing among the nominees for best supporting actress with The Reader.

Elsewhere, a best supporting actor nomination went to Heath Ledger, who died this year of an accidental prescription drug overdose, for his turn as the villainous Joker in the Batman movie The Dark Knight.

Among Ledger’s competitors are Tom Cruise in a comic performance as a movie studio executive in Tropic Thunder, as well as Cruise’s co-star in that film, Robert Downey, Jr.

The Golden Globe Awards, which will be given out on Jan. 11 in a televised ceremony on broadcast network NBC, are seen as a key indicator of which movies will compete for Oscars because many of the same movies vie for both awards.

The Oscars, voted upon by some 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, will be given out in February.

The HFPA, which has about 90 voting members, also hands out awards for U.S. television programs, and in the category for best TV drama were Dexter, House, In Treatment, Mad Men and True Blood.

Nominees for best TV comedy or musical were 30 Rock, The Office, Weeds, Californication, and Entourage.

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